Last Chance
by Desert Tamar
Summary: After the events of Tabula Rasa, Anya catches up to Giles at the airport and explains her point of view.


He had just entered the airport when he heard her voice call out from behind him.

"Giles, Giles!"

He turned, "Anya?"

"Oh, Giles," she said breathlessly, throwing her arms around him and knocking his carry-on to the floor, "I'm so happy I caught up with you."

He carefully extricated himself from her embrace and retrieved the bag from the floor. "Has something happened?" he asked.

"No! Nothing like that. Well, sort of. I mean, the spell happened," she explained. "Both of them," she added.

"Anya, if you'd like we can talk about this over telephone sometime in the next few days, but—"

"No! " she replied, clearly agitated. "I came here to talk to you. It's all very dramatic, isn't it? Running up to you in the airport, catching up with you just before you get on the gate…"

"I haven't even gotten my boarding pass yet," he said, slightly exasperated.

"Well, fine," she huffed. "Anyway, like I said, I came here, very dramatically, to talk to you. To tell you that you're making a mistake."

"Pardon me?"

"You shouldn't leave," she repeated.

Giles sighed and shifted the bag on his shoulder. "As I've already explained, I have my reasons."

She continued unabated, "No, no you haven't. You just announced it. And your reasons would have been dumb anyway."

"Anya!" he said sharply.

"Well, it's true. And you have reasons to stay which far outweigh the reasons to leave."

"And pray tell," he said, with a hint of sarcasm, "what might they be?"

Anya took a breath and began, "If it's necessary, I could mention the whole, 'Buffy's been through hell.' Well, not really because she was in heaven. But you know what I mean. And she has the whole secret superhero thing but with an early death package- that's tough emotional baggage. And her mom died, she has really bad luck with men, etcetera, etcetera. Shouldn't you stay and help her with all of that? Isn't that your job?"

"That hasn't been my job for quite some time now," he said softly. "It's really not necessary for me to be here anymore."

"Yes, it is. It most definitely is!" she exclaimed.

"By staying here, I'm only holding Buffy back. She'll never become an adult unless she realizes she's strong enough on her own to deal with the world, Both supernatural and other."

"Ok, fine," she conceded. "But what adult could possibly be expected to handle all of this on her own? That's unreasonable."

"Anya, I understand that in light of this new revelation that one might feel compelled to—"

"That's bullshit," she interrupted.

"Pardon me?" he said.

"That's bullshit," she countered, "In the last year her mother has died and she's died. And her boyfriend left her to go fight demons in the rainforest. And her sister is some sort of mystical key that no one is sure about because maybe she could still end the world. And she's a kleptomaniac."

"What! Buffy's been stealing things?" he demanded.

"No," she explained, "Dawn has. But I've got it under control. I keep a list."

"A list?" he asked.

"Of inventory she's illegally taken from the premises. You know, shoplifting."

"Yes, yes. But you haven't told anyone?" he pressed.

"No," she replied. "I know, it's uncharacteristically generous and compassionate of me. You know, I'm not actually a robot. "Like you all seem to think," she muttered under her breath." Her mother and her sister both died and she almost ended the world. Also, she's not real. So I figured maybe shoplifting is a response to of all that and should be dealt with when we have time to deal with all of that. Because if we don't, we'll just be yelling at her and probably irreparably damaging her delicate little girl emotions. Although, they're probably already irreparably damaged, what with the aforementioned dead family members and being fake,

"That's..that's all very sensible, but like you said, if this is how she's dealing with her emotions then she needs to be sat down and—"

Right," Anya interjected. "And who exactly is going to do that? Willow and Tara? Xander? Spike? in case you haven't noticed, they're all basically children playing in grown up clothing. And Spike is a vampire. And of course, vampires and demons are evil and not to be trusted. Unless you need their help babysitting or researching or running around graveyards at inhuman hours valiantly trying to kill things. Also, Willow is getting kinda scary."

"Anya.."

"Yes, yes, I know," she responded, annoyed. "Everyone is perfectly capable and it's time to grow up. You know it's not that simple. Deep inside, you must know that that's not true."

Then, she reached up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "But that's not even the point. You should stay for me. For us."

"What?" he asked, confused, looking down at her hand.

"Look," she said carefully, "I'm sorry I said I was happy that you're leaving," She took a deep breath and continued, "It was just that, well it is true that I run the shop much better than you ever did and I was glad that I get to be in charge of it again and that you'll be the silent overseas partner like you promised."

"The point, Anya, please."

"Right," she shook her head slightly and continued, unnerved. "I was happy. But now, I don't want you to leave. I want you to stay here, with me. Because of me. Because of us. I think we could be an us...like we saw when we were pawns in Willow's little spell."

"Darling, you do remember that we spent most of that time arguing," he returned.

"Ha! " she crowed, "You just called me darling! That proves it."

"No," he stammered, "that was just, just left over, remnants of the spell…the time when we were..under the spell. Oh really, Anya. You don't know what you're saying. This is absolutely ridiculous- you're merely experiencing aftereffects of the spell. Like I said. The spell."

Anya moved closer, even as he took a step backwards. "Giles, you, like everyone else, seem to conveniently forget that I may look like I'm 22, but I am in fact old enough to know what I want. And I want you."

"You do not want me to stay," he shot back. "You are engaged to Xander, lest you forget."

"Oh, that." She waved her hand dismissively. "I broke up with him before I came here."

"Wha-what? Why would you do such a thing?"

"I told you" she said impatiently. "Because I want you. Not Xander. You."

Anya," he said softly, "I understand that you have very strong feelings on this subject, but I really can't stay. I have to leave. For myself."

"Would it help if I told you that I think I might be in love with you?" she asked hopefully.

"No." He sighed. "It really wouldn't."

"So you're still going to leave?"

"Yes. I am."

"Hey, at least I tried," she said, turning her face away.

"Right, then," he said awkwardly.

"Ok, well, goodbye then," she whispered.

"Goodbye, Anya." With that, he hoisted the bag further on his shoulder, turned, and continued into the airport.

Anya brushed a few tears away, and with a look around, proceeded to the door. At the last minute, she turned back, watching as he approached the ticket counter, and called out, "Giles! Wait. I love you!"

Without looking, he said silently to himself, "That's not enough."


End file.
